BOSTON — Maybe when David Krejci scored his game-winning goal Monday night he was a little more rested than he’d normally be 14 minutes into overtime.

For the first time in four overtime games during this season’s Stanley Cup playoffs, Bruins head coach Claude Julien doled out two shifts in the extra session to his fourth line of Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton.

The trio enjoyed one solid shift with little excitement in the Bruins’ win that put them up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinal series with Philadelphia. The three hard-nosed veterans then survived a lengthy second shift against the high-octane offensive line of Nikolay Zherdev, Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk.

“It’s not easy,” said Campbell today, after an off-ice workout at TD Garden, about being used so sparingly. “Obviously we want to be a part of it. … We’re confident in ourselves as a line. Sometimes when you sit there, and things are happening so fast out there and it’s such a pressure-filled thing when you’re out there in overtime. The last thing you want to do is go out there and get scored on or have chances against.

“I thought the one shift we had was pretty good; the other shift we sort of got hemmed in a little bit. But at the end of the shift there wasn’t that many point-blank chances. We kind of kept it to the outside. They did have one point-blank possession. But I thought we did a pretty good job considering we were sent out there to take a little bit of the heat off the top three lines that had been playing quite a bit.”

Surviving such a high-pressure shift is a credit to not only the three grinders’ abilities but their veteran experience.

“I feel great out there. I know our whole line’s confident,” said Paille. “We moved the puck real well. When we were in the D zone running around a little bit, we were still calm and felt pretty composed.”

The Flyers have similarly used their fourth line for spot duty in this series.

With the Bruins up 2-0, it could be a short series. But should Philadelphia get back in and extend the series, the fourth line’s shifts could become even more important for conserving the energy of the Bruins’ top guns. At some point, Boston might even need its energy line to chip in at some point.

Regardless, if it’s rest for teammates that the fourth-line players have to provide, they’ll do whatever it takes.

The fourth line helped this team all year and I have no problem with any or all of them playing at any in the game they play there postions and thorny seems to always be there for the back check. Use all of this talent and you will succeed.

How great is it to watch playoff games where neither team is diving or embellishing injuries to draw penalties! It must be funny to see the Habs play golf, rolling around the tee box holding their heads after slicing one into the woods.

They’re solid out there and I never have a problem with the 4th line playing minutes throughout the game. In OT, though, I’d rather see individuals from that line moved in to sub for anoyone needing a breather. If Rex or Looch or anyone is looking gassed, let Campbell then Paille skate a shift up on those lines. Seems to be a better use of the talent…

I was biting my nails the whole time they were out there. Campbell is pretty good, Thornton is okay and Paille is speedy, but they aren’t exactly a scoring line and the line they were matched with was definitely one.

I probably shouldn’t have worried too much-I honestly think we have a pretty capable 4th line, but it was OT and the next goal gets the game.

That sarcastic, unsolicited embellish jab was not totally unwarranted. At first I thought J.C Tremblay had come over to the dark side. Then he started to babble incoherently. Should go see a Doctor. Dr. Recchi isn’t taking any patients at this time. He’s busy practicing for games in May.

I don’t mean to be facetious but Paille’s breakaway lacked any kind of imagination. He told Boucher he was going to shoot it from center ice. Then the little dog pee and thanks for coming out. I’m sure Thornton and Soup were hoping to get a plus there. They could of had made it a four line scoring game. I’d take that over a power play goal any day.

Oh man, this is shaping up to be one heck of a series. Nice to see Bruins win the first 2 games. I really feel like they will win game 3. However, I have a strong feeling the Flyers will then win the next 4. Poor Cam Neely will be pulling his hair out in the press box.
I also feel like McQuaid was imbellishing his injury. How can it be even possible the guy might return this series if he wasn’t imbellishing, but I guess it does help to have the expertise of Dr. Recchi on the team. Bruins will win game 3.